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I’m not a fan of wastage in the kitchen and so I try and use up every ingredient to it’s full. Eggs are one of those things that often call for the equally valuable parts to be separated and the dilemma then is what to do with the unnecessary bits. Chickens work hard to give us these beautiful little ovals of goodness and so, when I have spare whites or yolks, they need to be used. The good thing about both parts of the humble egg is that they can be frozen to be used another day if you don’t have an immediate plan for them.

Egg whites can be easily frozen and thawed for future use. For easy measuring when you next need them, first freeze each egg white in an ice cube tray and then transfer to either a freezer bag or container. Once thawed, whites will beat to a better volume if allowed to sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes. They will keep frozen for up to 12 months.

Freezing egg yolks is not as easy as freezing egg whites as the gelatinous nature of the yolks causes them to thicken or gel when frozen. To help stop this, beat in either ½ tsp of salt or
1½ tsp of sugar per 4 yolks. Ensure you label the yolks according to whether they were mixed with salt or sugar so you know whether to use them for savoury dishes or sweets and desserts. You can freeze the yolks for 3-4 months.

So why am I telling you this? Any of you who know me and follow my website and Instagram page will know I do a lot of baking and love using Swiss Meringue Buttercream as much as people love eating it. This often leaves me in a state of egg yolk excess and needing to find ways to use them. One of my favourites is to make fruit curds which can be stored in the fridge for ages and can then be used in so many great ways. I’ve used them as frostings for cakes, surprise centres for cupcakes, fillings for tarts, dolloped on yoghurt or ice-cream, flavouring agents for buttercream, fillings for buttery shortbread biscuits and drizzled over meringue for a twist to a pavlova.

Curds are a great thing to have on hand in the fridge and also solve the problem of those left over yolks and abundance of fruit in season. My earlier post gave you the recipe for my Swiss Meringue Buttercream and so, now that you’re left with egg yolks aplenty, it’s only right that I give you my recipe for what to do with them. My favourite curds to make are usually citrus and passionfruit, but they do lend themselves to other things like mangoes and berries and probably a variety of other fruits that I haven’t even thought of.

If you haven’t tried curds before give it a go, for as they say “waste not, want not”.
For the recipe, follow the link: Citrus and Fruit Curd